Psalm 46:8-11 We live in a world of radical uncertainty. In so many areas, there’s so much we don’t know, and can’t possibly know – both in the present and in the future. By contrast in the Bible we find certainty. In it God reveals the truth about himself, about us, and about where this world is heading. And that is what we find in the final verses of this psalm.
Psalm 46:4-7 The Bible is a tale of two cities – the city of man and the city of God. These verses tell us why the latter is the best place to be investing our hopes, dreams, security, and future.
Psalm 46:1-3 At times of dark discouragement, the reformer, Martin Luther, would say to his friend, ‘Come, Philip, let’s sing the 46th psalm’. But why did he turn to this one in particular? How does it help us when life is tough and our world is falling apart?
Revelation 1:17-18 Keys give you power. They get you out of places. They unlock doors. Without the key you’re trapped. And so death is a prison to which we’re all heading. And none of us has the key to get out of it into life beyond. But Jesus does. His resurrection declares him to be the only keyholder.
John 3:16 If you were watching a performance of the ballet Swan Lake for the first time, and you didn’t have any plot synopsis, you’d be struggling to figure out what was going on. And so with the crucifixion of Jesus. But Jesus himself gives us his interpretation in what is one of the most famous verses in the Bible.
James 5:12-20 Pressure can be a making or breaking experience for us spiritually. Which it turns out to be will depend on how we respond to it. And the letter of James is a good place to go to learn about a right response to pressure.
James 4:13-5:11 There are two types of time. One is the time we see on our watches and mobiles. The other is time from God’s perspective – seeing that life is uncertain, and judgement is coming, and the Lord is returning. If we lose track of time in this sense, it’s disastrous, because then we won’t be living as we should.
James 4:1-12 We live in a world in which there is conflict on all sorts of levels – between countries, in communities, in marriages and families, at work, in friendships, and even among believers. What does God think of conflict? Where does it come from? How can we resolve it? This passage gives us the answers.
Habakkuk 3:16b-19 Stock markets in turmoil; sporting events cancelled; businesses struggling; basics running out on supermarket shelves – Habakkuk faced circumstances not dissimilar to our own. And at the end of his little book he shows us how to respond as the people of faith.
James 3:1-18 Language is a wonderful gift which is unique to humans. We use words every day. Lots of them. But how significant are our words? Hugely so. James tells us that they reveal whether our faith is genuine or fake.
